WAR IN THE GULF: Americans' Reaction; Anxious Nation, Drawn Together For Support, Exhibits a Quiet Pride

Published: January 18, 1991

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Precautions against terrorism were the tightest in Washington, a city preoccupied with security even in ordinary times. Senate staff workers were searched yesterday with uncommon scrutiny before entering the Russell Senate Office Building. Police dogs prowled the Capitol, and Secret Service agents with shotguns stood guard outside the Iraqi Embassy.

In the midst of the largely supportive mood, sporadic antiwar protests continued in cities around the country, including Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Hartford and New Haven.

Some who protested on Wednesday night thought better of it yesterday. "When the bombing started, I felt the electricity and nostalgia of opposing a war," said Rabbi Michael Paley, the director of the Earl Hall Center for Religious Life at Columbia Univerisity in New York. "But today it hit me: this is a real war out there. People will die. I'm older than I was in the Vietnam War. There was a momentary exhileration Wednesday, but nostalgia is short lived." Opponents Reconsider

While protests continued, some Americans were reconsidering their opposition to the war, in light of what seemed yesterday morning a singular moment of international cooperation.

"As hokey as this may sound," said Mr. Dawson of Houston, "President Bush's whole premise that there is a possibility for a stronger United Nations and a genuine world peace must be valued," he said. "It surprises me so much to feel this way."

A similar hope for a new world order was expressed by Mike Houghton of Alexandria, Va., a manager of international corporate relations at Bell Atlantic. "What is really good to see is all the countries banding together," Mr. Houghton said, before the attack on Israel. "Often the United States takes the peacekeeping role and gets criticized for it. But we're all in this together and that's a good sign. It's not an Arab-Western war, as Saddam Hussein likes to paint it. It's an aggressor vesus a peacekeeping force."

The thoughts and feeling of this first day of war would likely stay with them forever, the men and women interviewed said, since this was certain to be one of those events that marks the end of an old era and the start of a new one.

Several people compared their feelings to those on the days of John F. Kennedy's assassination or the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, when they knew instantly, watching the first television pictures, that nothing would be quite the same again.

"The course of history has changed," said Mr. Houghton. "I don't know exactly what that means, but I know things are going to be different."

Photo: Americans lent support to the Persian Gulf effort with blood donations. Angelo Licata and Annette Reid stacked cases of blood being readied at the Red Cross center in Buffalo for shipment to the Middle East. (Reuters)